When He's Playing All His Games
by AStateOfImaginaryGrace
Summary: Zane's POV for the date in Ch. 13 of "Watching You Watch Him." I recommend reading that first, though it's not strictly necessary.


_ A/N - So, QuasiOuster suggested that it would be nice to see Zane's POV for the date, and I agreed - it _would_ be nice to know. So...this happened._

_It's probably not necessary, but I recommend reading _Watching You Watch Him_ first. This story refers to a few events in that one, but not extensively._

* * *

_When he's playing all his games_

_It gets hard to tell who's the victim_

_When I am watching you watch him_

_- _Watching You Watch Him, _Eric Hutchinson_

* * *

Zane swallowed hard as he led Zoe into the dinner-crowded café. He'd suggested dinner, skip the movie. Not that movies weren't fun, but he needed to get her talking if he was going to figure out Jo. The downside to talking was…he'd have to talk. And it was hard to help from feeling like the easy companionship they fell into was flirting, and he already felt bad for leading her on. But, well, wasn't he already going to hell anyway?

"Look, there's a table over here," he said, and began to pull her toward a two-chaired table next to the window.

"Oh," she breathed, and stopped, forcing him to turn around and look at her. She looked like it was an idea that had her so excitedly breathless. "We should take it outside to Haber Park. A picnic, you know?"

Before Zane could react, protest, object in any way, Vincent was standing behind her looking like an eager puppy.

"Did somebody say picnic? I have just the thing."

He was gone just as quickly as he had appeared, back through the swinging doors to the kitchen. Zane was left to stare dumbly after him, wishing that he hadn't been so caught by surprise. His reflexes really were suffering from his lack of sleep. Obviously.

Zoe took the stool at the end of the bar while they waited for Vincent to return. Zane stood around the corner, too agitated to sit. He leaned against the counter awkwardly.

Luckily, Zoe covered for him, probably without even noticing.

"It's too bad you couldn't come to the beach today," she was saying when he tuned back in. "It was a lot of fun. Everybody was there."

"Everybody?" he said with a raise of his eyebrows.

"Well, okay, _no_, not _everybody,_" she agreed in a mocking tone. "But a lot of people, mostly from Tesla. Swimming, volleyball, a bunch of grills—oh, but I shouldn't be telling you this. You were cooped up all day."

He laughed. "No, it's alright. I'm sure I'll get another chance to visit Lake Archimedes." Damn it, he wasn't supposed to sound like he was looking forward to future dates, but her expression said that she was.

"Here," Vincent presented them with a large woven basket, "is your Perfect Picnic Pack. Enjoy!"

Zane looked down at the basket in his hands and heaved a sigh. No getting out of this one. Because dinner—friends could do dinner, inside the family-friendly café. But this picnic, and that dress, just brought this closer and closer to real date territory.

"Thanks, Vince," he heard her say.

And then the chef's reply, "Have fun. Just be sure to bring it all back when you're finished."

He followed Zoe outside, staring at the picnic blanket on top of the basket. He hoped it was one of the super-compressed blankets and not some ploy to get them to sit closer together.

They reached Haber Park in a few short minutes, and Zane followed Zoe mutely while she flitted around, choosing the perfect spot. Finally she settled on a place off the path, close enough to a streetlamp that they'd be able to see when the sun set but not so close that it was glaring down on them.

She took the blanket and spread it out (Zane was relieved to see that it was large enough to sit comfortably with space between them).

Zane smiled and set the basket in the middle. "Let's eat."

He lifted the lid and stared in amazement at the number of boxes packed into it. He pulled out one from near the top and inspected it—stuffed olives, his favorite. He smiled. Vincent really knew his stuff, and held nothing back. He reached in and pulled another. This one held some sort of sandwiches. Box after box appeared and Zane began to wonder if Vincent had some sort of Mary Poppins magic or Time Lord science.

When the basket was nearly empty, Zoe leaned in and reached for the utensils and plates stacked against the side. She quickly withdrew, and Zane breathed in relief. She wasn't trying to start anything, just innocently trying to help. He really needed to get his mind out of the gutter. He didn't even want it to be there in the first place.

He grabbed a plate, a fork, and a napkin, and set them on his side of the blanket. He went for the container of olives, and then felt her hand brush across the back of his. The immediate panic settled back when he saw that she'd been reaching for the olives as well—nothing more. _Get a grip,_ he thought fiercely. This was _not_ a stressful situation.

He picked up the box and handed it to her, insisting, "No, no, after you."

She thanked him, took some olives, and handed it back. After that they had no more collisions of wanting the same food at the same time.

He thought it was vaguely funny, that he'd never met anybody else who actually _liked_ stuffed olives. What were the odds? Of course, they were his favorite and he'd ordered them often enough that maybe people had seen and thought they'd like to try them. Or Vincent had them on hand and had started offering them to other people, too. Yes, that must be it, because he could swear he'd seen Lupo eating them one time.

Right. Jo. He had to know. He _had_ to know what had happened to those people, and where the real Enforcer had gone. If he wasn't so sleep deprived, the curiosity would be burning him alive. As it was, the drive for knowing was only a slow simmer at the back of his mind. He was sure that as soon as he was able, his mind would be putting all the recent events and clues into a clear image. But without knowing what Zoe knew, that image had a huge Lupo shaped hole in the center.

"So, what happened at the test?" Zoe asked.

Oops, he'd zoned out again. He looked up at her, and saw the concern. What happened? He'd told her that something had gone wrong when they were on the phone earlier. "Not sure yet," he said through the bite of chicken-avocado sandwich he didn't remember taking. He swallowed quickly, but caught the way she was staring. Her eyes quickly darted back up to his, and she blushed, but didn't say anything. Well, if she was going to ignore it, he could too. "The system overloaded," he explained, condensing it down to the main ideas. "Doesn't matter now, though. We'll fix it tomorrow."

But how to bring up Lupo? And how to get Zoe to confess?

"As long as it doesn't cause a catastrophe," Zoe said with a smile.

It took him a millisecond longer than usual to respond. "I don't think it will. Although now I've said that, the probability of catastrophe just went way up." He grinned. See, this wasn't so hard.

"Do you know what you'll be working on next?" she asked him with genuine interest. Then she got that mischievous look. "Or can't you tell me, because it's so top secret?"

He shook his head. "It's only Eureka classified, not DOD. Do you remember the Big Bang project a few years ago?" No harm in telling her that much.

To his surprise, she took on a self-deprecating sort of smile. "Honestly, I didn't pay that much attention to what was going on at GD during high school unless it involved my dad. I was too focused on keeping up with all the geniuses in class." She looked down at her food.

"Oh, hey, Zoe," he said, to make her look at him again. This was something he wouldn't stand for; the idiots in this town thinking they were so superior, trying to make everybody else seem stupid and incompetent. (Unless it was Carter—then it was okay. (He laughed to himself. He'd meant that flippantly, but it was true. Carter was dangerously smart, and knew it well enough to play it up. Underestimating the sheriff had gotten Zane into trouble more than once.) But his daughter…) Zane was surprised to find himself believing his next words, earnestly wanting Zoe to understand them as well.

"You're smart. You _know_ that. You're a great student, and you don't need to compare yourself to other people. Back when I was a student…" He took a deep breath. "I wish I'd been more like you. Willing to learn, and able to understand everything. You have that, and that's important." And it was true—he did wish he'd been more willing to learn, more willing to compromise and accomplish instead of stubbornly doing the opposite of what anybody asked. Not because he thought people should conform—god, no—but because going against for the sake of being difficult, well, that had been stupid. He might be further in life right now if he'd only learned to listen when he was younger. He wasn't so sure he still couldn't do with learning that lesson a little bit more. A lot more.

"And, between you and me," he told her conspiratorially, "I heard about your one-eleven legacy, and you're doing just _fine_ despite it." There, levity. That would fix things.

She blushed. "How'd you hear about that?"

He pretended to think, playing it offhand. "Jo must have told me. When I was locked up, or something." But that was a lie. He remembered perfectly well where he'd heard it.

He'd been sitting on the bench in GD's lockup, patiently—ha—waiting for Lupo to decide he'd been there long enough and release him. She'd been sitting at her desk, ignoring him as she usually did, reading something on her laptop. And then she had burst out laughing, and he remembered thinking it was the first time he'd heard anything genuine come out of that mouth. He remembered thinking about how it lit up her face, made her seem not even remotely evil, remembered the sound echoing in his ears even after she released him. When he'd asked what was so funny, she'd showed him a picture in an e-mail, recounting Carter's proud explanation of his 111% IQ. And he'd laughed right along with her at the story, even though he hadn't been there the first time. Zane remembered this experience because it was the first time since his arrival in Eureka that she'd seemed like a real human being, like a possibility.

"You're okay, with Jo, right?" Zoe asked tentatively. Damn, he hadn't meant to make her insecure again. "I mean—I didn't mean to cause problems." He could hear the unspoken _any more than you already have with her _tacked onto the end.

He tried to laugh, to show her that he wasn't bothered. _And_ she'd brought it up—now was the perfect opportunity. How to do it? How to convince her? "No, no. It's fine. She found out, actually, that I'd hacked her camera system." He thought back to the non-run-in they'd had at the end of his day at GD, and her odd statements at S.A.R.A.H. "It was really weird. She e-mailed me yesterday, yelling at me about it, after she cut me off. She said we were going to have a meeting about it today, after the test. But then the test went wrong. I figured she wanted to have the meeting later, but then I saw her leave. She didn't even look angry. Just kind of smiled and left. Smiling Lupo is a little disconcerting."

"She's not always the Enforcer, you know. She's got feelings," Zoe jumped to Jo's defense. Zane would feel almost proud of her for that if it wasn't exactly the thing he was trying to break. Zoe's defense of Jo.

"Well, usually the ones directed at me are anger and loathing, and any smiling looks a little sadistic." True story—she really looked like she enjoyed using that Taser. Which she'd had to do more than once. "I guess I'm just a little unbalanced by real smiles. Especially since she hasn't been doing much of either kind lately."

Please, oh please, oh please—damn. He saw the moment she recognized the statement for what it was. If it were Jo, she'd leave in a huff, or use that Taser, or straight up punch him, but Zoe just looked resigned.

"Zane, I'm sorry, but I can't tell you."

He couldn't hold onto his anger anymore. He was feeling all this ridiculous pride for Zoe. "Picked up on that, eh?" he smiled. "See? Plenty smart." Then he put on his best begging face. "Why not?"

"She just," Zoe struggled for words, "had some personal problems."

"Well, why can't she talk about them?" Zane tried to take some of the whining out of his voice as he continued, "Why can't _you_ tell me about them?"

Zoe didn't hesitate this time. "_I_ can't tell you because I'm Jo's confidante, and I won't break that for anything." More pride. Why? Why was he proud of her for things that were in his way? "And Jo can't tell you, because…I don't know, okay? She's a very private person."

"Well, can you just give me a general direction?" He was practically begging now. "I mean, has she stumbled upon some international secret she has to keep? Or did something happen to her family? They're all military, right?"

He saw Zoe fighting with herself over the answer. "No," she said finally. "She was…having some guy troubles."

His first instinct was to laugh—C'mon, Lupo, guys? Trouble? Lupo did not strike him as the type to cry into pints of ice cream bemoaning lost loves. But that was wiped away in the blink of an eye. The way she'd been acting—that was real pain, real loss.

Before he knew it, he was thinking out loud. "Guys? But in the whole time I've been here, she's never—" he stopped as soon as he realized he had vocalized the thought. He should _not_ have said that. Because he already knew that _the Enforcer_ hadn't been dating since he got there. But he had no idea about this Jo Lupo. And Zoe _really_ didn't need to know that the two might be different.

But it _was _new information. Something to fill in some gaps in the puzzle.

"So, what are your plans for this semester?"

She began to explain, and he relaxed as it looked like she was going to let the subject drop.

"I'm taking this new course they're offering in evolution. There's a lot of research supporting the usefulness of evolution in the study of medicine. Um, I'm continuing organic chemistry, because even though I hate it it's necessary."

Zane laughed. He remembered not liking chemistry much in school, either. He was more of a physics person.

"Introduction to anatomy—great title for a class, right?—and then a European history course."

"What's that one for?"

"Diversity requirements. There are a lot of them, and not that much to choose from. Most of the good classes get taken by people who are majoring in the subject."

* * *

As Zoe began recounting amusing tales from her dorm during her summer program, Zane found himself relaxing the rest of the way and actually enjoying himself, now that he wasn't trying to hyper-analyze everything.

"So they taped newspapers across the doorframe, and stuffed balled-up pages in between. That morning, Lanie and I, we were so terrified when we opened the door and this wall of darkness came crashing down on us. I'm pretty sure she screamed!"

"What did you guys do in retaliation? You got revenge, right?"

"Ooh, classic water cups. The whole floor, covered in three ounce cups, evenly spaced—one inch apart. We even did the bed posts, desks, and dressers. It took them more than an hour to dump all the water out."

"No alcohol?"

"We were trying to be good. We'd already broken in."

"Ah, well…"

"Then we got bubble wrapped."

"No!"

"Everything, and I mean everything. They even did individual things, like our toothbrushes. I'm pretty sure the bubble wrap took longer to get rid of than the water."

"And then you guys—"

"Ambush with water guns."

"Nice."

By that time they were both laughing so hard they were on the ground, clutching at the blanket. Zane couldn't remember a time in Eureka when he'd had so much fun, been so care-free, unworried that he'd be judged for past mistakes.

He looked up at the sky and was surprised to see stars. Had they really spent that much time out here? He checked his PDA—eleven thirty.

"Zoe, I've had a really great time tonight," he told her sincerely. "But I promised your… your Jo that I wouldn't have you out too late, and I still have to go in to work tomorrow. Do you mind if we call it?"

"Sure," she said, still flushed with laughter.

Zane felt a pang of regret, that he'd let himself get lost in the good times. He'd forgotten that he wasn't planning on letting there be more.

They packed the now empty boxes back into their basket, and folded the blanket—a normal number of times—before walking the few blocks back to Café Diem.

The café was considerably less crowded now, with only three tables occupied and nobody at the bar. Zane put the basket up on the counter, where virtual Vincent greeted them.

"Tell Vince thanks for us, will you?" Zane asked.

"Sure thing," agreed the AI.

"Come on, I'll take you back to S.A.R.A.H."

Zoe followed him willingly.

"Zane?" she said quietly. "Thanks for tonight. I had a lot of fun."

"Me too. You know, most people in this town, they don't…they don't think of me as a person. They see me as the bad boy, or the particle physicist, or the criminal. But you see passed that. So, you know, thanks." And as hard as that was for him to say, he was glad he said it because the way she was smiling…It could light up the sky.

And that killed him.

* * *

_A/N - Thanks for reading! (Also thanks to QuasiOuster for the idea). I'm not sure how this ended up being twice as long as a regular chapter..._

_Reviews welcome, please and thank you :)_


End file.
